Child Care in The Woodlands

12-05-2006, 08:14 PM

We'll be moving to The Woodlands area at the end of December and will need child care for when I return from leave in January. Does anyone know of any good child care options in The Woodlands area? We are looking for something that has flexible hours and possibly could do 24-hour care for overnights. Either a nanny reference or private in-home child care would probably be the best since I'm assuming many child care centers don't have the hours flexibility. If anyone could steer me in the right direction as to where I might find people available for child care that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your help! :-)

MJacobsen · 12-05-2006, 09:21 PM

This is a tough one....we went thru it last summer. We couldn't find any daycares that offered the 24 hr thing -- at least none that we were willing to entrust with our child. After much soul searching we ended up going the nanny route. We found a nanny that was willing to be available to us all the time. We offered her a live-in position, but she has her own place so that was fine. We really stressed to her the strange hours and the absolute need to be on time and reliable. But because I couldn't guarantee how many hours she's get each month, we had to offer her a straight monthly salary. And that is costing us a small fortune...especially considering how little she actually works. For example, last month she worked a total of 4 days and this month, she'll work 1 day. That's mostly because my husband and I bid around each others schedule and that coupled with the fact that I only fly day-trips has made it possible for one of us to be home with the baby 99% of the time. So that kind of arrangement might be something you'd be interested in.

I live down in Spring, not the Woodlands, so there may be other options available up there that I'm unaware of.

Personally, I'd love to get a small "co-op" of pilot parents going. A few pilot moms (or dads) that rely on each other and work their schedules together would be a great thing. Not only would it cut down on costs, but the trust factor would go way up, too.

I've often thought that a stay-at-home spouse of a pilot here could start a very profitable business catering towards child care of other pilots, too.

Just random thoughts above, I suppose. But if you find something great, please post it here or pm me. My nanny goes back to school full-time in the spring and I'm sure I'll be back in the same boat you are by then.

Best of luck and congrats on the new addition to your family.

SOSODEF · 12-27-2006, 03:42 PM

Flynjenn did you have any luck? We are thinking about making the move as well but my wife works odd hours, sometimes until 10pm. Anybody else know of a day care which will watch them until late?